Iowa State Supporters, Ames Residents on RAGBRAI

Sign up for Ames Patch's free newsletter | Like us on Facebook | Follow us on Twitter

Iowa State University students, Ames residents and Cyclone lovers were in abundance during the third day of RAGBRAI at Valley Junction in West Des Moines Tuesday.

As Tuesday was jersey day there were many Cyclones and Iowa State University jerseys seen. Ames resident Eric Deters actually went to Iowa but wore a cyclones jersey and a funky red mohawk on the ride. It was his third ride through RAGBRAI.

Lori Adams of Ames and fellow rider Beth Sofranko of Chicago wore jerseys and tin man hats.

Adams said the hats were simple and cute.

“I heart wizard of Oz. I bought it just now,” Adams said.

In most cases the helmet decorations go with the team's' uniforms or are used so that members of cycling teams can identify each other in the pack of thousands.

Some of the unique helmets seen included James DuBose's model railroad car helmet. He picked the identifier when he noticed that most of the stopover RAGBRAI towns were railroad towns. His costume was complete with a bicycle horn that sounded like a train whistle. DuBose of Rochester, Ill., had ridden RAGBRAI four times completely.

Another man, Angelo Lontakos of Tarpon Springs, FLA., wore a sponge on his helmet for his RAGBRAI team, Team Spongers. Lontakos said the team members were all descendants of Greek immigrants who once dove to collect sponges from the sea before settling in Tarpon Springs.

Scroll through the photos to see Ames residents on RAGBRAI and hear one Iowa State student's story about his third RAGBRAI ride.